Sweet duel in Sugar: ND-LSU

The Irish aim to end long bowl-win drought

It will have all the trappings of a Bowl Championship Series game: good teams, a sold-out stadium and two groups of fans partying through the New Year.

But the Sugar Bowl matchup Jan. 3 between No. 11 Notre Dame and No. 4 LSU will be about recovery as well as revelry.

Until early Saturday evening, when UCLA's upset of USC tilted the axis of the college football world, the Irish and the Tigers had entertained notions of ending their seasons in the Rose Bowl. LSU has never played in that bowl, and the Irish haven't visited Pasadena since 1925, when Knute Rockne roamed the sidelines.

Instead, both 10-2 teams will be part of the return of the Sugar Bowl to New Orleans. The game was relocated to Atlanta last season because of the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

"If I had written the script, I couldn't have written it any better," said Paul Hoolahan, chief executive officer of the Sugar Bowl, who said the economic impact of the game on New Orleans has ranged from $150 million to $250 million in years past. "The two of these teams together in New Orleans, it's what the doctor ordered."

The last time the Irish met LSU in the postseason, the Tigers won 27-9 in the 1997 Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La. This time, the stage and the stakes will be much bigger.

The Sugar Bowl offers Notre Dame the chance to silence critics who have circled as the Irish have lost convincingly in games against top-tier opponents Ohio State, Michigan and USC within the last year. A victory would also be the Irish's first in a bowl game in 13 years.

"We want to win a bowl game, and we want to stop answering questions about Notre Dame not being able to win a bowl game," safety Tom Zbikowski said.

To achieve that, Notre Dame must get past an LSU team that has one of the toughest defenses in the nation. The Tigers are second in the nation in total defense, giving up less than 239 yards per game, and fourth in scoring defense, allowing 12.5 points per game.

The Tigers' offense also is top-flight. LSU averages just over 33 points per game, 10th best in the country.

"Obviously, when you're playing against a team the caliber of LSU, the first thing that comes to mind is making sure our players are ready for the speed of the game," Irish coach Charlie Weis said.

How will they do that?

"What we're going to do is spend the next few weeks [of practice with] the good guys against the good guys and not going against the [scout] teams," Weis said.

LSU coach Les Miles offered the same prescription for his team's preparation.

"We'll go against each other for quite some time, and the best look that we're going to get . . . will be going offense vs. defense," Miles said.

If Notre Dame wants to do in 2007 what it couldn't manage in 2006--beat a Top 15 team--it will have to get out of the gate quickly, quarterback Brady Quinn said.

"Anytime you get behind two or three scores, you've got to play catch-up and you kind of get desperate," Quinn said. "You can't put yourself in a hole from the get-go."

One thing is certain, Hoolahan said.

"We have a chance to match up one of the best teams in the SEC against one of the traditional powerhouses in college football," he said. "All of that bodes well for the economy."

Notre Dame's challenge will be to ensure an equally favorable outcome on the field.